[R] A gringo's account of a Campeoneto Paulista game

Palmerias - Sao Caetano was my first in-stadium game in Brazil and it was
quite an adventure.

One of my office colleagues is a Palmeiras fan and she took me to the
game yesterday. We arrived only 10 minutes before kickoff but I was
assured that we'd definitely get tickets. This didn't turn out to be the
case as there were hundreds, if not thousands waiting ticketless on the
street. By this time I had bought and worn a Palmerias jersey on the
street and was emotionally and financially invested.

So, we looked around to see if we could buy tickets from scalpers. We
walked to all the gates to no avail - either there was just one ticket or
the price was some ridiculous R$200 per ticket. We finally gave up and
were about to leave when my colleague thought of trying the away stand.
When we went there, they told me that they wouldn't let me in as I was
wearing a Palmeiras jersey and that would cause trouble. I assured them -
with production of numerous IDs from three countries - that I didn't
really support any Brazilian team and I just wanted to watch a game. My
colleague was already in neutral colours. They did not relent. So, I went
around the corner, found a bush behind a coffee shop and hid my shirt in
the bush. 5 minutes later, we were in and the game was some 20 minutes
into the first half. We had just missed the first goal.

The entire stadium looked to be in some amount of disrepair and not as
well maintained as some of the European stadiums I have seen. But, the
pitch looked even enough and people seemed to be having fun. Palestra
Italia is a small stadium - 25,000 or so would be my guess. Further, the
seating does not cover the entire stadium. There's a stand each behind
the line of one goal on either side. However, the area behind this goal
has no seating. Instead, it has a swimming pool and fitness centre. The
away seating is in one of these two stands. There's an empty area about
the same size as the away stand in between this area and the the rest of
the supporters. There are high fences and armed cops in this area to
prevent trouble between the two sets of supporters. This is a 'standing
section'. There are no actual seats or any other demarkations. Everyone
just sits/stands wherever they can find place on the concrete steps.

We sat close to the edge of the away stand near the fence. This brought
us just behind the line of the goal. Not the best seats but, pretty
decent. Apart from a handful (20 or so) San Caetano fans, I could quickly
make out that most of the people were Palmeiras supporters just like us.
There were many other shirtless guys, or shirts with conspicuous green
trim and so on.

The first half, or what we saw of it, was quite exciting. Palmeiras was
shooting towards the goal closer to us. Alex Mineiro had already scored a
first for them. The players I could make out as influencing the game were
Valdivia and Mineiro. The Palmerias keeper (Marcos?) was hardly troubled
in this half. I would describe more of the game but, I don't know that
many names and I was also trying to absorb more of the stadium and the
atmosphere. For most part, Palmeiras controlled the pace of the game and
were obviously the better team. There was a lot of neat skill on display
and not many fouls or play acting. However, the refs did seem to protect
strikers a lot more than I have seen in England.

Pierre added a goal soon after we sat down. The atmosphere in the
stadium, especially after a goal, was fantastic. The standing section for
the home team took the lead in any singing and cheering. They were
diagonally across from us. I could make out bands and synchronised
movement across the lines. The left part of the stands had a band. The
right part had a giant banner about 30 rows high and a hundred people
wide. It would be rolled out by the fans over their heads everytime a
goal was scored. This had a giant pig (the fan mascot) and the name of
the fan club. Cheers of "Ole Porco" and "Vamoos-Gaya(?) Porco)" were a
lot of fun. Unfortunately, we could not take part in this for the most
part. A few Palmeiras fans who forgot where they sat, and cheered a bit
too loudly in the away stand, were ejected by the police.

The half time show was similar to that in most clubs around the world.
Some fans came and attempted penalties. A few Paulista League mascots
shot some free kicks. Some hot women in tights walked around the ground
with banners about Racism prevention in the Paulista. This was greeted
with a lot of whistles and behaviour recommendations by the fans.

The second half was a bit more sedate. Palmeiras had a two goal cushion
and they sat back a bit. San Caetano had a lot more possession than
before. They had two close chances - once when one of their forwards was
3 yards out (they were now shooting towards the goal in front of us) and
just had the goalie to beat. Marcos (?) made a great stop but, the
offside whistle was also blown. There was another shot from outside the
box on the left which came off the right post. In the meantime, on the
other end, Valdivia showed some tremendous ball control. I was shooting a
grainy video on my phone camera and I paused it and said "He's going to
score". And he did. There were a couple more skillful displays of passing
and dribbling by Palmeiras but, you could see that they were just playing
around. Halfway through the second half, there was a mini-break. This was
weird to me. My friend said it was because of the daylight savings and
the hot evening sun. Sao Caetano was awarded a penalty because of a
handball in the box. It was uncontroversial and the home fans didn't seem
to mind either. When the penalty was put away, there was silence for a
while. Then, all the Palmeiras fans in the away stand started cheering
really loud in a very fake manner. That was hilarious.

It rained a bit the last 10 minutes or so. As the game wound down, all
pretence was abandoned and our stand started singing along to all the
Palmeiras songs. Most of the away fans had left anyway. We trooped out
singing along. I didn't catch the words of one of the cheers/songs which
seemed to say Foda Voce Corinthians or the like. I made my way back to
the bushes, my jersey was still there and, remarkably un-urinated on.

A very fun game, overall. Next week, I'll get to the Sao Paulo
Libertadores game and maybe I'll make my way to Santos soon.

Final - Palestra Italia
Palmeiras 3 - 1 Sao Caetano
23' Alex Mineiro Goal 1 - 0
37' Pierre Goal 2 - 0
69' Jorge Valdivia Goal 3 - 0
76' 3 - 1 Goal Douglas

Sid
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